Ice cream, one of many frozen confections, is a well known and favourite desert of millions of people. It is commonly prepared by mixing ingredients such as milk, dairy products, sugar, emulsifying agents, stabilizers, colorants and flavouring agents, sometimes in admixture with solid ingredients that are to be dispersed through the final product, agitating the ingredients while they are chilled and then freezing the mixture.
Ice cream is generally available in two varieties: hard packed and soft serve. Hard packed is the traditional ice cream that can be purchased in containers and stored in a freezer and then dispensed, usually by scooping the product with a scoop. Soft serve ice cream is the type that may be dispensed from a machine and has a softer, creamier consistency.
Restaurants that produce soft serve ice cream usually have one or two flavours available, and the ice cream is constantly being produced in a soft serve machine and is dispensed when requested by a customer. Machines hitherto used for this purpose have a few drawbacks. First, since the soft serve ice cream mix is initially in a liquid form, it must be frozen in the machine, which consumes a lot of energy. Second, when many deserts are produced in quick succession, the consistency of the dispensed product becomes less stiff since the freezer in the machine can not freeze the new incoming mix immediately and has a problem achieving the necessary temperature to produce the ice cream. Third, cleaning the machines is time consuming and costly, sometimes wasting product in the process. These problems pose a real problem for high volume outlets which require more than one machine in order to be able to produce soft serve ice cream at high volumes.
While soft serve ice cream is very popular, traditional hard packed ice cream is still appealing to many people. However, much of the ice cream sold at a cafe or an ice cream shop is supplied to the shop in a big batch from a bulk supply produced days before a customer's order. Shops that make their own ice cream often do so well prior to a customer's order. Therefore, ice cream may be hours or days old by the time it is served. Additionally, while a variety of toppings may be available, the flavours of the ice cream product are predetermined and the production of customised flavoured ice cream is not possible.
Further the consistency of both soft serve and hard packed ice cream varies greatly. The consistency of the soft serve is dependant on the volume being produced and the consistency of the hard pack depends greatly on the temperature at which the product is stored. Thus, it is not possible for a consumer to dictate the required consistency in the confectionery product.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,098,732 to Inagaki and U.S. Pat. No. 6,510,890 to Paskach, the teachings of which are incorporated herein by reference, teach apparatus for and methods of producing an instant frozen confectionery product. However, in each case the apparatus suffers the disadvantage that product produced has direct contact with parts of the machinery. Thus, if the apparatus is used to make custom flavours, the machines should desirably be cleaned between serving one customer and serving the next, in order to ensure there is no cross-contamination of flavours. In a busy outlet this is not practical.